Broken Dreams: Mercedes SLX. Stuttgart like Maranello: That No to the Rear Engine

Porsche’s idea of producing winning racing cars with rear engines during the '60s—think of the 550 RS—was copied by many car manufacturers both for the track and for the road. Ferrari, with the 250 P, Abarth with its small sports cars, and Ford with the GT40, as well as Porsche itself with the 904, got Mercedes technical management thinking too. After retiring from racing following the tragedy at Le Mans in 1955, the 300 SL, the famous “Gullwing”, remained the last-standing symbol of the three-pointed star's sportiness.

The evolution of the first SLX idea in 1965 began with a 1:5 scale model. Here, the designers Paul Braq (right) and Giorgio Battistella, who created the model.

It was a question of understanding what style and technology a rear-engined sports Mercedes dedicated for road use should adopt. By 1962, a team led by designer Paul Braq, who had designed the Pagoda, and Italian Giorgio Battistella from Turin-based OSI, had already drawn the first sketches that took four years to become a 1:1 scale model, presented to the board. Unfortunately, they had no luck, despite positive wind tunnel tests, partly due to a change in the company's technical direction, which focused on innovative engines like the Wankel.

The model of the SLX in the wind tunnel with the classic “wool tufts” that confirm the efficiency of the design.

In terms of style, creating a model capable of rivaling the 300 SL was a challenging task. The key feature was the distribution of the masses, with a shorter nose and longer, tapered tail to house the engine. The car introduced innovations like retractable headlights, an integrated bumper wrapping around the vehicle, and large front grilles—its most “Mercedes” feature.

The very smooth line of the SLX with its generous front fenders made possible by moving the engine to the rear.

What was distinctly un-Mercedes was the rear section, with large side air intakes and an arrow-shaped tail. Though visionary, the project was shelved, paving the way for prototypes like the C111. Despite further experiments, Mercedes-Benz did not produce a rear-engined road car until the 1990s with the CLK GTR and the AMG GT-One.

The elegantly profiled arrow-shaped rear. Curiously, the car does not adopt any stylistic features that made the 300 SL so iconic.